The Discovery
by S.J.Ferdinanz
Summary: A man visits the love of his life in a shack in the forest. On his way home he gets lost and finds out a horrible secret of his lover.


The Discovery

"So you're leaving then" she asks me in her lovely, soft sounding voice.

"I've got to don't I?" I reply "I don't want to be seen here"  
I kiss her briefly, and I cast my last glance around this hut, and think, not for the first time, that it is an unsuitable place for such beauty.

I walk through the dark, intimidating forest, the skylarks are singing and the squirrels are scratching in the trees, but I cannot hear any of it, as my thoughts dwell on the beautiful girl I had left behind me. As I come to myself once again and realise I had taken a wrong turning and gotten lost.

I turn around and start making my way home, I catch a glimpse of light to my left, so I turn towards it, thinking that I could get out of the forest and then go back home through the country-side. Bursting through the branches that seem bent on holding me back, I realise that I do not know this place at all.

I have burst through into a clearing and as I gaze around it in wonder I notice a tall, commanding obelisk covered in strange carvings. Slowly walking towards it, I discover that it is surrounded in little triangular flags with a coat of arms on them. Standing under the obelisk I realise that what at first I took for carvings are actually words spelling out some strange language. I stare at the obelisk I can feel something strange coming over me, and suddenly I can actually read what it says on the obelisk.

Beginning to read what it says on the obelisk I realise that this place is the sacred worship and meeting place of the Zhutang, a native tribe of this area. Reading on, I find that they worship a god named Skili and that he is their god of the dead. Now I have come to a list of their most celebrated members. Reading through them, I see a name that I know, Veralia, the girl I had left just over two hours ago. As I read the rest of her entry on this tribal honours board I realise that she is a contract killer for this tribe.

Looking around me once again I see, out of the corner of my eye, some moment in the trees to my right, about where I came into this clearing and when I turned around a person jumped out at me, a person with long red hair and green eyes

. "Veralia!" I cry "did you follow me here!" I see tears in her eyes and open my arms and embrace her as she sobs into my shoulder.

"I didn't want you to find out" she tells me sadly. "I thought you wouldn't love me if you knew."  
"It's OK" I tell her "I still love you."

"I knew you would," she said "but if the tribe finds out we're both dead."

A look of confusion crosses her face briefly to be followed by one of interest, "but," she asks "how on earth did you find the obelisk?"

"Oh that."

"Well?" she asks expectantly,

"I got lost I guess." I say

"What do you mean 'lost'?" she asks me.

A smile crosses my face and I sigh "I was thinking about you and took a wrong turn." I say truthfully.

Now it's her turn to laugh "well that's very nice of you, but shouldn't you be getting back home now?"

"But I don't know the way!" I exclaimed, as the horrible truth sinks in.

"Lucky for you I do." comes a voice from behind me. As I spin around an arrow whizzes past me, followed by a thud as Veralia falls to the ground, hit by the arrow meant for me.

"Veralia," I cry, and as I run towards her she utters her last words.

"Thomas," she whispers "kill them all, every last one of them."

"Of course," I tell her.  
"Well I might as well start now," so I charge at the man with the bow. As I knock him to the ground his eyes open in surprise. Getting back to my feet I take his bow and shoot an arrow into his chest, but to my astonishment the arrow that I intended to slay him with just bounced away. I figure that he is wearing some kind of body amour so I shoot another arrow into his eye but to no avail.

I realise then that some kind of magic dwells in these weapons and that this force makes them useless to anyone but their rightful owner. Thinking about what I could do, I remember something I read on the obelisk. Just as I go to search the warrior for his amulet, the only thing that unlocks the power in these weapons, he starts thrashing wildly; reminding me of something else I had forgotten in my rush to kill this tribesman, the warrior must be out cold to take his amulet, or he will go to all lengths to stop you...

To be continued…  
S.J. Ferdinanz


End file.
